1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to the art of electrical connectors, and more particularly, to an electrical connector which is used to connect a flexible printed circuit or a flexible flat cable with a printed circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of flexible printed circuit connectors are widely used in electronic devices such as mobile phones, keyboards and fax machines. These flexible printed circuit connectors are provided for connecting flexible printed circuits with printed circuit boards. A conventional flexible printed circuit connector generally comprises an insulated housing, a plurality of electrical contacts received in the housing and a slider member movably mounted to the housing. When a flexible printed circuit is mounted into the housing, the slider member presses the flexible printed circuit against the electrical contacts firmly to achieve a reliable electrical connection therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,797 discloses a flexible printed circuit connector. FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,797 shows that a housing of the flexible printed circuit connector comprises a pair of arm receptacles extending from lateral ends thereof. Each of the arm receptacles defines a slot therein. A slider member includes a plate and a pair of latching arms formed on lateral ends of the plate. When the flexible printed circuit is not mounted to the housing, an inserting mouth is provided between the slider member and the housing, so the latching arms can move around in the arm receptacles freely. After the flexible printed circuit is mounted to the housing, the slider member presses the flexible printed circuit against electrical contacts firmly. Accordingly, a complete electrical connection between the flexible printed circuit and the flexible printed circuit connector is established. However, with the trend toward miniaturization of electronic devices, the width of the latching arms is relatively small, and the latching arms are not adequately intense to endure the force applied thereon by repeatedly inserting into and pulling out of the housing. Therefore, the latching arms are easily damaged in operation or other applications especially in sections thereof at which the latching arms are connected with the plate.
Hence, an improved flexible printed circuit connector is highly desired to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.